The Internet, Extranets, and similar networking or communications environments offer users a tremendously flexible and dynamic environment in which to create and disseminate information in the form of Web pages. A number of tools have been developed over time to aid users in the authoring and publishing of Web pages. These authoring and publishing tools often include a variety of templates with predefined data organization and display definitions. The user can also use these tools to develop their own custom templates.
In use, at the beginning of the development of a Web page, the user can select one of these templates based on the type and style of Web page that is desired. Once the selection has been made, the user then may enter data within a number of pre-defined data fields of the template. Once the content of the page has been entered, the user then uses a renderer associated with the template to format the data for publishing to the Internet. The template and the renderer may be tied to each to ensure the particular look and feel of the Web page. Once the data has been rendered or visualized, the Web page can then be posted to an appropriate server and made available to users of the Internet. It is this posted Web page that includes any active links to other data or other Web pages, and it is this posted Web page to which other pages or sites may include links.
If a user desires to change the look and feel of the data displayed on the page, the entire page must be brought down and redeveloped using a new template and associated renderer. Even if the data contained within the page does not change, the Web page must be taken down and the existing links to the posted page may be broken.
As an example, a corporation may wish to disseminate a press release regarding a new product to be placed on the market. The information in such a press release may be picked up by one of the news services on the Internet and republished further in a variety of formats for different audiences. The content of the press release does not change but the style and layout may change, based on the audience for which the format is intended. One version may be published on a financial news section of the news service and may be directed to users who will be most interested in potential revenues or development costs of the new product. Another version may be published in a technical subject matter section where the users are more interested in specific features and capabilities of the product. Yet another version may be published in a general news area where users may be more interested in the name and general character of the product. Each of these pages in different sections of the news service site may have a different variety of links or other information arrayed with the product information, which may be independent of or unrelated to the specific content of the press release.
With the current authoring and publishing tools available, each of these different versions of the same press release could be developed from the same data using different templates or renderers best suited for the intended audience. However, each time the press release is revisualized the URL of the page would change, breaking any external links from other pages or sites to the press release. Each time the press release is revisualized, the existing page including the press release would be deleted and a new page put up in its place. Any links to the original page would then have to be changed to ensure that they pointed to the newly published page.
The present manner of developing and publishing web pages also requires that the web page must be brought down to edit any of the data or other content included on the page. Any corrections to text within the press release in the example above would require that the page be taken from the web, edited, revisualized and reposted to the web server.
Improvements to templates and renderers for developing and publishing Web pages are desirable.